Investigative: U.S. senators to examine Bush's Iraq statements

posted by admin on Friday February 13, @05:38PM

Updated: Dispute Prompts Scrutiny of Bush's Daily Reading - nytimes.com February 14, 2004

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate intelligence committee has agreed to expand its review of intelligence on Iraq to examine whether the Bush administration accurately described the information it had on Saddam Hussein's weapons. The committee will examine "whether public statements and reports and testimony regarding Iraq by U.S. government officials (between the 1991 Gulf War and the Iraq War) were substantiated by intelligence information," committee leaders said in a statement.

The panel is nearing completion of a report expected to be extremely critical of the intelligence agencies' collection and analysis of prewar intelligence.

Since the inquiry began in June, Democrats have insisted that the commission also examine whether the administration distorted intelligence to help build the case for war. Republicans have refused and each side has accused the other of using the traditionally bipartisan committee for political purposes.

( Read More... | Investigative | Print | Email )

Investigative: Senate Hearing Demands Full Inquiry into Halliburton's Alledged Waste Fraud and Abuse

posted by admin on Friday February 13, @06:56AM

Democratic Policy Committee Hearing

Senate hearing concludes with a demanded for hearings into whistleblowers charges of rampant waste fraud and abuse in Halliburton's monopoly of contracts in the middle east.

Also examined during the hearing was the harm to fair prices created by the policy of excluding competition with the white house sanctioned monopoly of Halliburton.

Jarring examples were provided by the panel of former employees/consultants and watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, but the most outrageous were the ones that contrasted waste such as corporate logos being expensed and stamped on gear while soliders are lacking even basic equipment that would help save their lives such as flak-jackets and armor plated vehicals.

( Read More... | Investigative | Print | Email )

Technology: Windows2000 and NT go open source! (inadvertently) - slashdot.org

posted by admin on Friday February 13, @06:30AM

Updated: Microsoft probes secret code leak

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday February 12, @04:43PM
from the making-the-rounds dept.

PeterHammer writes "Neowin.net is reporting that Windows 2000 and Windows NT source code has been leaked to the internet. More on this as we hear it."

A quick peek around indeed shows something named Windows.Source.Code.w2k.nt4.wxp.tar circulating, but this had to happen sooner or later, considering the number of institutions with access to the source. Wonder how long it'll take before a torrent of new worms using newly discovered security holes tear up the net.

"The server is too busy at the moment. Please try again later."

Later isn't going to work, since the server was down even before it hit the Slashdot front page. I empathize with their server.

I did, however, managed to grab the news blurb (but not the, at that point, 214 comments) from the intermittent front page:

Neowin has learned of shocking and potentially devastating news. It would appear that two packages are circulating on the internet, one being the source code to Windows 2000, and the other being the source code to Windows NT. At this time, it is hard to establish whether or not full code has leaked, and this will undoubtedly remain the situation until an attempt is made to compile them. Microsoft are currently unavailable for comment surrounding this leak so we have no official response from them at the time of writing.

This leak is a shock not only to Neowin, but to the wider IT industry. The ramifications of this leak are far reaching and devastating. This reporter does not wish to be sensationalist, but the number of industries and critical systems that are based around these technologies that could be damaged by new exploits found in this source code is something that doesn't bare thinking about.

( Read More... | Technology | Print | Email )

LA Times: Senate’s Iraq Probe to Include Bush, Aides

posted by admin on Friday February 13, @03:04AM

WASHINGTON — In a blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday that it planned to investigate whether White House officials exaggerated the Iraq threat or pressured analysts to tailor their assessments of Baghdad's weapons programs to bolster the case for war.

The move puts claims made by President Bush and other senior officials in his administration squarely in the sights of the committee's investigation, and could add to the White House's political troubles as it tries to keep questions about the war from becoming a drag on Bush's reelection campaign

http://www.latimes.com

( Read More... | Investigative | Print | Email )

911: 9/11 Panel to Seek (Public) Testimony From Bush

posted by admin on Thursday February 12, @05:47PM

Updated: Bush 'OKs' PRIVATE Talk With 9/11 Panel - Associated Press February 14, 2004

Published: February 13, 2004

The independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks said Thursday that it would seek public testimony from President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney about intelligence agency warnings they might have received before the attacks, a move that could provoke a new showdown between the panel and the White House.

The panel said a similar request for public testimony was being made to former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore, as well as to senior Bush administration officials including Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser; George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence; Attorney General John Ashcroft; Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld; and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.

...

The request leaves Mr. Bush with an uncomfortable choice: either testify before the commission and answer a host of potentially embarrassing questions about intelligence and law enforcement in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, or refuse to testify, providing Democrats with election-year ammunition to argue that the White House is stonewalling the inquiry.

more...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/13/politics/13PANE.html?hp

( Read More... | 911 | Print | Email )

International: U.N. Calls On Bush To Give Up America's Nukes

posted by admin on Thursday February 12, @08:24AM

"A fundamental part of the nonproliferation bargain is the commitment of the five nuclear states recognized under the nonproliferation treaty -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- to move toward disarmament," ElBaradei wrote.

more...
http://www.wral.com/news/2841985/detail.html

( Read More... | International | Print | Email )